School Suspension

Virginia public schools issued over 127,800 out-of-school suspensions to over 73,000 individual students, an increase in the number of students excluded from school for disciplinary infractions.

Black students were 4.5 times times more likely to be suspended than Hispanic and white students—up significantly from 3.8 times more likely in the 2015-16 academic year.

Virginia schools continued to use exclusionary discipline with very young students at an astonishing rate, issuing nearly 18,000 short-term suspensions and at least 111 long-term suspensions just to children in pre-k through 3rd grade—a marked increase for that population over the prior year’s results.

As a Commonwealth, we know almost nothing about which or how many students are being placed into disciplinary alternative education programs, how they perform—academically and behaviorally—after they enter the program, and what happens to them after they leave (if they ever transfer back into their home school, or even if they graduate). Although Virginia schools often resort to assignments to disciplinary alternative education programs to address student code of conduct violations, they do not track and make available even the most basic information about these students.

During the 2015-16 school year, Virginia schools issued over 131,500 out-of-school suspensions to over 70,000 individual students, representing an increase in the overall suspension rate for the second year in a row.

The short-term suspension rate increased in 2015-16 after years of significant steady decline.

Virginia schools continue to use exclusionary discipline with very young students at an astonishing rate, issuing over 17,300 short-term suspensions and at least 93 long-term suspensions just to children in pre-Kindergarten (pre-K) through third grade alone.

The majority of suspensions were issued for minor offenses, with approximately two-thirds of all suspensions given for behavior offenses, such as possession of cell phones, minor insubordination, disrespect, and using inappropriate language.

The University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and the Legal Aid Justice Center have partnered on a new report documenting the scope of racial disparities in school suspension in Virginia. The report also unveils the results of a new study demonstrating that use of the Virginia

Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (VSTAG) is associated with lower rates of school suspensions, including a smaller racial discipline gap.

Suspension & Expulsion Data for 2013-14 (Dec. 2015)
This data brief ranks each of Virginia’s 132 school divisions by numbers and rates of students short-term suspended, long-term suspended, and expelled. It also ranks the divisions on the basis of racial and disabilities disparities in the use of short-term suspension.